Curling wands are a lot like their predecessor (curling irons) except they do not have a clamp that holds your hair to the iron. Instead, they require the user to wrap the hair around the iron and hold it there for a short period of time, usually 2 to 3 seconds.
Wands tend to work much faster than irons, and they are good for medium sized to large curls and waves. Some smaller wands are able to make spiral curls on shoulder length hair as well.
Wands come in one size or in a tapered body that allows bigger curls at the base and smaller curls at the tip. They do require a little bit of practice, but they do an excellent job of locking in style with the right amount of heat.
The upside down barrel of the Bed Head Blue Raspberry gives you a style that is slightly different from other irons because the curls are looser at the bottom. Most irons do it the other way around and they get looser throughout the day as they fall out. The style of this iron is definitely a reversal, but it still gives you sharp curls with a lot of character.
A really well priced option that has a lot of support behind it is the Conair YOU CURL Curling Wand. The price comes in at just under $25 which is a steal in the world of decent hair tools. It’s small and sleek looking, but still big enough to do the job.
The CI5338 goes farther than just using a flexible amount of heat. The barrel has a keratin treatment on it that helps to strengthen your hair the way a Brazilian Blowout would at the salon. It may not be quite as effective as the salon treatment, but at least you get some benefit in the comfort of your own home.
The HSI Professional Curling Iron Set with 4 Barrels gives you, (you guessed it) four different tips to change out that make the wand a different size. You can choose from super skinny for really tight curls or majorly large for waves. Basically, there isn’t a curl you can’t create with all of these choices at your “fingertips”.
While you can get a whole lot of style with the Bed Head Orange Crush, you won’t get the tight curls produced when using the small end of a tapered wand. These will be longer, looser waves or curls without a whole lot of bounce, but they still turn out really pretty and totally wearable.
The barrel on the Bold Expressions Iron is tapered so you get different sized curls depending on where you wrap the hair on the iron. Shorter hair can get tighter curls by styling closer to the tip, while longer hair can cover more ground by wrapping around the base of the iron.
While the wand does a good job of getting hot when it’s supposed to, the surface and shape of it can work against you. The cone shape combined with the slick, ceramic exterior means hair might come off the wand in some situations. This is why I wouldn’t recommend it to novices.